


Catacomb Visitors

by dreamyafterdark



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Force Ghost(s), Korriban (Star Wars), Kylux - Freeform, Light Angst, M/M, Sith Tomb, Soft Kylux, Tuk'ata - Freeform, catacombs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 11:39:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18120068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamyafterdark/pseuds/dreamyafterdark
Summary: Kylo brings a badly injured Hux to Korriban to seek help in healing him...For the Kylux Titleception 2019 event





	Catacomb Visitors

In his arms. It was safe in his arms. No one stood in his way, no one questioned him. Not the Supreme Leader. Not the strongest Force user in the Galaxy. Kylo walked with Hux’s unconscious body against his chest, surrounding him with Force healing, while the General’s heartbeat was so faint it was merely a whisper in his veins…

Remnants of the official State dinner lay strewn far down the corridors, broken plates and broken people. As Kylo walked out of the building, swarms of troopers going in the opposite direction parted at his sight. Mobilised to search for intelligence as well as survivors – friend or foe. Mobile medi-units stood by for both, although where they would go from there would differ drastically. Jaragio had been a stable ally, and the rebellion behind this attack would need to be dealt with swiftly.

But as Kylo carried Hux onto his ship, held him… reverently, tenderly, almost… his mind was focussed only on the now, on the slender, fragile creature in his arms. His stomach twisted at the thought of having arrived just 30 seconds later. If he hadn’t sensed the bomb, if he hadn’t moved Hux out of harm’s way with the Force… no, not out of harm’s way. He could only move him into the lesser evil’s path, and now… now only one place could still help him… help them both.

Indeed. No one stood in the way. No one questioned. Why he, who was publicly known to never have seen eye to eye with the General, should care so much…- Kylo sat down, cradled Hux in his arms, and made the pilot set course to Korriban. As he sat, he leaned back his head for a moment, closed his eyes…

“Thank you, Grandfather. For making me face the truth, before it was too late…”

Korriban looked just as Kylo had last seen it. Red, dusty sands, rocky outcrops and a sense of impending thunder despite a clear sky with burning sunshine. The pilot dropped the as close to the Valley as he dared, and Kylo walked the rest on foot. Focussing his Force healing on Hux, he nevertheless let the Tuk’ata know of his presence, too. They watched silently from atop, snarling and baring their fangs, as they agreed to not only leave the two men in peace, but also to guard them from all other creatures. So much so that when Kylo was about to enter the tomb he had chosen, two Tuk’ata came along with him, one on each side. 

But as he tried to step inside, he came up against an invisible barrier, then heard Hux speak… inside his mind.

[No!]  
“Hux, this place can help you.”  
[My body cannot enter here.]  
“What are you talking about?”  
[Lay my body down, Ren!]

Kylo frowned in confusion, but complied. Hux hadn’t even opened his eyes, and he didn’t register any more consciousness in him as before, but the voice in his mind was loud and clear… He carefully lay Hux’s body down, and the Tuk’ata to his left moved next to him and stood guard.

“See?”

Kylo gasped when he looked up. Before him, across the threshold stood… Hux, but as a… Force ghost.

“How?”  
“Stop asking questions you don’t want to know the answer to. Now let’s go. There isn’t much time, Ren.”

The remaining Tuk’ata growled softly by his side. Kylo looked back down at Hux’s sleeping body, then took a deep breath, and entered the tomb as well. The moment he stepped across the threshold, the entrance closed up behind them. Hux smirked. 

“Looks like the place is accepting us…”

Kylo exhaled heavily. At least Hux’s dry humour still seemed the same. But there had never been any sign that the General had any Force capabilities, so why he should have a Force ghost now, especially since he wasn’t dead yet, was beyond the Knight. Korriban was thick with dark Force energy, and while he wasn’t afraid for himself, the care he had uncovered for Hux was intensifying by the minute. And if this ghost was not who he appeared to be, then the real Hux was in danger. However-

“Come on, Ren. We must hurry, before I fade away completely...”

They walked down the narrow corridor, torches fixed to the wall lighting up as they passed under them. The walls were thick, red-brick with black grouting, the ceiling hung low. All the while that they were walking, the entire building seemed to… breathe. Contracting and expanding ever so slightly around them, like a slow, deep heartbeat, and they, travelling down the main vein into its heart… Kylo traced his hand along the walls, and finely drawn symbols began to appear across the rough, cool stone, all around them. Softly glowing and fading in the same heartbeat rhythm, they pulsed the three further down into the building without giving up their secrets. No one alive could read this language anymore…

The tomb of Angar Kroll. Hidden for millennia, then suddenly unearthed by a particularly vicious storm a decade ago. Since then, only one person had managed to venture inside and come back alive. And he was dead now. Come to his end by his former apprentice’s lightsaber, in his own Throne Room… - Suddenly, the Tuk’ata barked, and stopped.

Before them lay a main chamber, with several finely decorated sarcophagi. Clearly traps... Kylo stood and looked around the room for door.

“There…”

He lead the way, carefully walking along the left wall, avoiding each of the myriad of traps. There, in the corner, was an unassuming little door. On getting closer, it looked almost like it had grown into the wall, and Kylo wondered how long it would have taken him to detect it, if Snoke hadn’t been here before…. They had to crouch to get through it, then move along on hands and knees. The Tuk’ata made himself small and slid along the floor, softly growling. Hux in life was slender already, but in ghost form he had no size issues at all of course. Kylo, however, only just about fit his muscular chest and quietly swore to himself. 

The path led them downwards, deeper and deeper into the belly of the tomb, until they reached the end, looking out from above across a large, circular room. The bluish lights down here were ever-glowing, and so they could see some way into the dozens of arched pathways branching off from it. Along their walls, hundred and hundreds of graves. Hux gripped around Kylo’s wrist.

“Ren, when we descend here…”  
“I know. But they are slow. We’ll be faster.”

As they dropped down from the opening, there was a sound like groaning across the pathways. The Army of Four-Houndred Souls... The Tuk’ata bared his fangs, and Hux looked around, then back at Kylo. 

“You know which path to take?”

Kylo glanced across the room. The rumbling of hundreds of undead soldiers slowly but steadily grew around them, but the symbol he was looking for just wasn’t there. 

“The star. There is meant to be an eight-pointed star on one of these arches…”  
“Like that one?”  
“That… wasn’t there before.”  
“As interesting as that is, I suggest we leave before *they* catch up with us…”

There was nothing for it. Kylo stepped forward, while Hux moved behind him and the Tuk’ata walked by his right side. They quickly made their way across the room, groaning and scratching noises increasing behind them, but as soon as Kylo had walked under the arch, everything fell silent… 

The pathway was slim, what were stacks of graves along the walls of the others was simply brickwork here. Or so it seemed. The further they got down the pathway, the more distinctly Kylo began to feel something, *someone* touching him. Fingers, hands, arms, were growing out of the walls, pulling at them. The Tuk’ata snapped at them, drool running from his mouth, while Kylo tried to ignore them. Hux had the benefit of no materiality. They went right through him…

“This is it.”

Kylo stood in front of a small vase, in the middle of a circular room that seemed to be flooded by moonlight from an impossibly high ceiling. When they had entered, a soft melody had began playing, echoing eerily along the walls. Everything looked different here, the walls were grey, the floors were covered in black, volcanic sand. The Tuk’ata sat down and folded his tail around his body, softly panting. Kylo traced his fingers over the vase, then looked up to see Hux’s eyes glowing. Their usual blue-green colour replaced by pure, deep black, and within it, swirls of golden yellow. 

“Open it…”

The Knight swallowed. Was this really Hux… He opened the vase and a silver mist rose from it, dancing through the air, as a soft, melodious sigh came from it… no, it came from Hux… Kylo looked up to see the Force ghost lie down across the black sand, stretching out in calm bliss, and petting the Tuk’ata who gently purred and nuzzled his head against the ghost’s neck.

“Oh, thank you for releasing him, my little one…”  
“Please...Will you help me?”, Kylo asked quietly, suddenly realising who must have been walking by his side the whole time.  
“Save your love? But of course, little one...”

When Kylo woke up, he was lying outside the tomb’s entrance. The Tuk’ata guarding Hux’s body was gently nudging him with her snout, and as he opened his eyes, Hux was standing over him. 

“Can you stand up?”

They didn’t speak as they walked back to the shuttle. There was so much to say, and yet… well, there would be time. Above them, the sky was steadily darkening, a real thunderstorm it seemed. Indeed, rare, fine rain began to fall as they got closer to the ship. The pilot greeted them, them swallowed. Kylo looked down to his side and noticed the two Tuk’ata had accompanied them. Nodding to the pilot, he got onto the ship, and they and Hux followed silently. 

Leaving Korriban just as the storm began to hit, their ship set course for the Supremacy. Kylo sat and watched out of the window, with Hux beside him. The General’s hand moved to find Kylo’s and gently, but firmly, squeeze it. Neither man looked away from the window, but Kylo squeezed back, then held onto Hux’s hand, when he was about to remove it again. Hux did not protest. And behind him, the Tuk’atas gently purred.

[Oh, aren’t they sweet… young love.]  
[Just like us, when we first met…]


End file.
